The British Snowboard Champs 2005 //
Comment / Review
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> the brits 2005
Ah, the Brits...no not that
wack tv show where coldplay turn up and collect
seventeen awards in one night for their amazingly
touching music, oh we thank you so much, yeah
and i'm sure the seventeen people who commited
suicide after listening to your album would
like to thank you too. anyway, like i said,
not that. The Brits, the British Snowboarding
Championships, yes back on track....
the standard of British snowboarding has improved
so much over recent seasons. The past two brits
have had the misfortune of bad weather, but
with the change of venue to Laax, there were
no excuses, and this year the riders had stepped
it up, it was all about cab 7s, frontside 9s,
270s in, out, and off...tricks which would not
look out of place in some of the world's most
prestigious snowboard events. that little ginger
guy may have pulled a clean cab nine and then
a frontside seven in front of a full capacity
crowd at the air & style and won 50 g's,
but personally i think britain's very own scott
mcmorris, winner of the brits slopestyle, pisses
all over him. white is no more than a big mac
- looks good on tv, a well marketed product,
but when you see it in real life it's just a
greasy mess.
So why is it that British riders are not getting
the credit they deserve? oh of course, the answer
is always that the british market is a small
one. i would like to say at this stage that
this is complete bullshit, and anyone trying
to convince themselves it isn't needs to take
their head out of their own arse and take a
look around...have you seen lately how many
snowboard shops there are in the uk? take a
look in the back of any uk magazine and you
will see, slide this, slide that, splodge, splash,
yeah the names leave a lot to be desired in
some cases but these are real retailers selling
muchus snowboarding gear every year...the market
is not small.
So with this not so small snowboarding market
of retailers, distributors, not to mention the
non-snowboard related companies which are, strong
as ever trying to get into snowboarding's backside,
the prize money awarded to the best british
rider at this years brits slopestyle, wait for
it..... £400. £400?!? i think we
can do better than that boys! my gran wins more
on an average night at the bingo. the cost of
getting to and staying in laxx for the week
was probably more than that! ...but i wouldn't
expect the organisers to figure this out as
they stay their for free! remember when you
used to go on a school trip, the teachers would
add a small amount on to the cost so that they
would go on the trip for free? well that seems
to be how the british snowboard events work
too. there were also big question marks surrounding
the judging of the big air, definitely something
dodgy going on...and a few slightly unhappy
riders. finish the event off with a few muggings
outside the main night venue and that was the
brits 2005!
...and don't even get me started on the olympic
team...each rider pays to be on it, er...shouldn't
it be the other way around for britain's next
olympic hopes? charging them for this priviledge
doesn't seem right to me. i don't suppose danny
kass pays a canadian guy with a goaty to tell
him how to do back to back 1080s.
it's high time the riders rebelled...snowboarding
fashion at present is very much orientated around
punk, so how about some anarchy!? take the bull
by the horns and tell these dictators who seem
to have appointed themselves in management positions,
to take their management experience and open
a clothing factory in south east asia, workers
in these places might take more kindly to the
exploitation. the british snowboard scene is
not small, it is just badly managed and badly
marketed, so if orange mobile phones want a
piece of snowboardings arse, next year how about
some decent prize money? these guys are busting
themselves for you so don't sell their souls(ports).
Step-On Magazine Issue 26
    
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